Forgotten Past
by Continental Drifter
Summary: The herd are migrating to a new place where Peaches will be raised up. Is it as easy as it has been predicted? NOT CONTINUING ANYMORE.
1. Migrating Drama

Forgotten Past- Chapter 1

Sunshine poured over the snowy landscape, taking away the strange cluster of tracks on the thick ice. Three sets of prints were large and circular. The other pair was tiger-like prints, with their claws outstretched. Another had a strange, medium sized print with three long claws sticking out. The final two pairs were identical possum prints.

If you were standing there, examining these particular footprints, you would've thought there was a predator verses prey attack. But if you raised your eyes, took three steps, jumped and squinted, you could see the most peculiar herd in the whole of the Ice Age period.

These sorts of herds were rare, probably a one in a thousand chance. Most of them were unlikely to be united, and half of them weren't there in the first place.

But if a person did see this, suppose a common native hiker that created their own settlements in the middle of icy areas, they would have been a terrible threat to the peculiar herd. This was a prime chance for finding valuable materials. They could savour the grand tusks of the two large parent mammoths, and wear fine sabre-toothed tiger coats. It was fortunate then, that there were no traces of human civilisation in the next millions of miles.

The herd continued to pres through the thick icy snow, continually arguing for fun and just casually discussing various unimportant matters.

'Ellie, can I have a dog?' the strange, medium sized footed creature asked. This was Sid the sloth who was just a little bit crazy.

'Sid, you asked that question three minutes ago. That's ten times now!' sighed the female woolly mammoth. Her fur was brown, just lighter than the mammoth beside her. Ellie was her name and patience was definitely her skill.

A small mammoth pranced around the snow in between her parents' large feet. She was giggling and running around the snow, blowing her trunk in excitement.

'Aw, Peaches, want a lift?' Sid offered to the young mammoth.

'Not a chance,' the male woolly mammoth said. He had dark brown fur and was a bit larger than the female woolly mammoth.

'Please, Manny!' Sid begged.

Manny, the male woolly mammoth, firmly shook his head and ahead of them, the sabre-toothed tiger smirked. He was Diego, who had reluctantly teamed up with Sid and Manny in the beginning. His fur was a light caramel colour and his two long teeth pointed down sharply.

'I saw that!' Sid shrieked over to Diego. 'Sheesh, why doesn't anybody trust me? I'm a trustworthy sloth!'

Two striped black and white possums darted around quickly hiding in between Diego's clawed legs, continuously tripping him over.

'Aargh!' the tiger exclaimed in frustration as he tumbled to the snowy ground.

'That's sixteen for us, and nil for you!' Crash reported.

'You just wait till we make it to the ocean and I'll fill your heads up with freezing cold water!' growled Diego as he pulled himself together.

'Bring it!' Crash growled back and Eddie dragged him away from the growling tiger.

'I don't think you'll have to wait long for that, Diego,' Manny said, glancing ahead. 'We're here.'

The herd stopped and looked up to see a bright blue ocean glittering in front of them like a million dancing sapphire stones.

Crash and Eddie stared in awe. Then, Crash took a couple steps away from Diego and took off, down the hill that was partly covered in ice and partly covered in dry dirt.

'ESCAPE!' screamed Crash as he scurried down the hill.

'Nuh-uh,' Ellie replied and used her long trunk to drag Crash back.

'We can't go down there just yet,' Manny explained. 'There might be-'

'Aaaaaaaarrrggghhhh!'

A half rat half squirrel creature with bulging big eyes shot past the silent herd. His fur was grey and untamed and he was holding onto a brown acorn protectively.

Tagging closely behind him was an attractive creature that looked like she shared the same race as him, except that she had the ability to fly like a flying fox and she was a lot more attractive than the ratty squirrel creature.

She was running swiftly behind the rat and her big eyes that were dusted in a metallic blue turned to serious frustration.

'Hey,' Sid recalled. 'That's the dude I saved!'

'How'd you saved him?' Diego wanted to know.

'I did mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!' Sid replied proudly.

'Eww!' the others said, refraining from the proud sloth.

'What?' Sid demanded.

'Anyway, we can't go down there yet because there might be people there, civilisation. We've got to get somebody to go check it out, make sure it's clear. We'll need somebody small,' Manny continued.

Everybody immediately looked at Eddie and Crash. They looked around, a bit shocked by all the expectant faces from the herd.

'Fine!' Crash gave in. 'We'll do it!'

Crash courageously picked up a stick and yanked at Eddie's paw, dragging him down the hill.

'We'll be fine! We'll conquer these beasts!' Crash called as he departed down the hill with Eddie wailing in fear and clawing his way up the hill. 'We'll be the conquerors of the Ice Age! We'll…'

Diego sighed and rested on the melting ice. Sid waited as well and everything was quiet and peaceful. You could faintly hear Crash jeering about as he proceeded down the hill.

Then, somebody broke the silence. It was the same half rat half squirrel creature that was running rapidly. He was screaming loudly yet again and that same demanding female was chasing after him.

As the creature ran past, he tripped over Peaches' small foot and sent his acorn hurtling into the paws of the female. The creature stared at the acorn in the female's claws and his eyes twitched in horror before he let out a deafening scream.

The animals winced at the pained screech of the creature and Sid decided to do a favour for the creature. He got up, followed the female and promptly snatched the acorn out of her snobby claws and handed it back to the original owner.

The creature's eyes twitched again and his eyes grew bigger and watery. The creature got up on its feet and hugged Sid, then marched away.

'Hey, wait, what's your name?' Sid wanted to know as the creature walked away.

The rat stopped marching and halted, soldier-style. He did a swift turn on his heels and drew his name on the ice with a lone stick that lay beside him.

'Scrat,' Sid read.

The creature nodded and proceeded to walk away with his acorn, but realised it was gone. Scrat looked around in desperation and saw the flying female holding the acorn. She was standing at the edge of a cliff and held the brown acorn. She fluttered her eyes and waved a goodbye, then took off, holding the acorn in her hands.

Scrat's eyes twitched again and he let out another deafening scream of irritation.

'All clear!'

The herd focused their attention back on the two possums, Crash and Eddie.

'Are you sure?' Manny asked.

'Uh, duh, we've been sitting on that rock next to the water for like ages!' Crash replied.

Eddie was still shaking with fright.

'Aw, c'mon Eddie, get over it!' Crash exclaimed to the quivering Eddie. 'There wasn't even anything there! It was just water that was cold and just some plain old sand!'

'Sand?' Ellie asked, stunned.

'Oh no,' Manny said, looking at the calm blue ocean. 'We're at the shore.'

Everybody was silent as they stared at the bright blue sea, inhaling the salty air. All this time they had travelled, in hope to find a nicer spot to relax in so their baby, Peaches, could experience a different place where others didn't criticize them for their difference in herds. Now, they were all lost in hope. They were at the shore!

'We could sail somewhere,' Sid suggested.

'Oh yeah, sure, Sid,' Diego replied sarcastically.

'We could, you know,' Ellie agreed optimistically. 'We could sail around, try finding some nice place?'

The herd proceeded forward and glanced at the big blue sea. Sid felt the water and his face relaxed when he realised that it was cold. He jumped in and splashed everybody with droplets of water. Diego reacted quicker than the speed of sound and flinched.

'You're still scared of the water, aren't you?' Sid asked, and Diego wouldn't meet his eye.

Manny sighed as he looked out to the water. The sky was bright blue, there was no ice, it was slightly warm and there was no place to live.

'We have to turn back,' Manny sighed.

'No way,' Eddie cried. 'We've come so far now! We can't just give up!'

'But there's nothing to eat, nothing to do, no place to live!' Manny replied. 'What are we gonna do here? Just sit on our butt all day?'

'That sounds reasonable.'

'Sid!'

As they argued over what to do, Ellie and Peaches walked away, looking for something to do other than argue. Peaches was giggling and exploring the new landscape. They found an icy ledge and Peaches stood on it. She sat down and gave a great big sneeze.

'Peaches come back,' Ellie called. 'Peach-AARRGGHH!'

A loud cracking noise came and the ledge fell down, into the cold water.

'PEACHES!' Ellie shrieked. The ledge of ice floated on the water, sailing farther out in the sea.

Manny ran over to Ellie.

'What happened? Where's Peaches?'

'PEACHES!' screamed Ellie, reaching her trunk towards her.

Manny stared in horror as he saw Peaches, frightened. She was on the icy ledge calling and trumpeting for help. The rest of the herd came over and were astonished at what happened to Peaches.

'Quick, find another ledge thing to save Peaches!' Ellie ordered urgently.

'Manny- stomp on that one!' Ellie cried desperately. Manny obeyed and the ledge cracked. 'Get on, everybody, hurry!'

Ellie jumped on, but the ledge cracked in half. Eddie and Crash joined Ellie while Sid and Diego dove for the other half of the ledge.

'Paddle towards us!' Manny ordered. 'PADDLE!'

Diego and Sid frantically paddled to Manny and Ellie, but the tide was stronger and Manny's half was floating further away.

'We need to get over to them!' Diego said to Sid. 'How?'

Sid paused, glanced at the water and looked at Diego. 'It's time to face your fears, buddy,' Sid said and dove into the water. Diego stared into the water, searching for Sid. He gripped the edge of the ice in terror.

'Please…survive!' Diego muttered to himself. He closed his eyes and leapt into the water, furiously kicking the water, trying to reach the others. Diego finally reached the other side of the ledge and leapt on, grabbing onto Manny.

'Diego, please, retract the claws.'

Diego apologised and let go immediately. They were all together, squashed on a ledge, searching for Peaches. Sid squinted west and leant forward to see more.

'She's there! I found her! Quickly, everybody!' Diego called out.

'I actually found her, bud,' Sid muttered.

Ellie looked and dunked her trunk in the water to paddle. 'Hurry, everybody! Paddle!'

Manny dunked his trunk in too and paddled hard. Sid used his clawed hands to push the ledge to Peaches. Diego used Crash and Eddie as oars.

'We're there! We're there!' Ellie shouted and grabbed Peaches from the melting ledge.

'Phew,' everybody sighed in relief. Diego let go of Crash and Eddie. They clambered on board and coughed continuously. Everyone was breathing hard and sighing in relief.

'Now, let's go paddle back to land, I guess,' Ellie suggested. Just as they were about to start paddling, a long string was put over the ledge. It was thin and hard. On the end of the string was an acorn.

'Hey, this is fishing line,' Manny said. 'That means this is a trap.'

The acorn did not make it into the water. It sat at the very edge of the ledge, waiting to be taken. Nobody moved a muscle. Seconds later, a small, crazy creature leapt up from the water and snatched the acorn.

'AAARGGHH!' everybody hollered, staring at the creature.

They all stopped, glanced at the creature and sighed.

Scrat was back.

'Hey, Scrat!' Sid said. 'You'd better let go 'cause that's a-'

Suddenly, the acorn trap's line started to move, just like it was being reeled in from a fisherman. Manny and the others screamed, along with Scrat, who was still holding onto the fake acorn.

'LET GO OF THE ACORN!' Manny hollered over the screaming. 'LET GO OF IT!'

The line had been caught on the ledge and now, the line was dragging the ledge quickly along the water.

Sid tried to snatch the acorn off Scrat, but that made Scrat go furious and he had a huge fight with Sid over the acorn.

'JUST TELL HIM TO LET GO OF THE ACORN!' Ellie screamed.

'TELL THE STUPID RAT TO LET OF IT OR I'LL EAT HIM!' Diego threatened.

'You wouldn't wanna do that, Diego,' Sid replied. 'This guy looks a little freaky to me.'

'I don't particularly care right now! Just tell him to-'

The ledge crashed against a large wooden block. Everyone closed their eyes and slowly glancing upwards. They crashed against a boat. It was large and very high. The boat was just bobbing on the water.

'If you ask me, that look like a ship, like a really big ship,' Sid said quietly.

Scrat didn't really care about the boat. He picked up the acorn and walked to edge of the ledge to swim back. But he pulled the line of the acorn and suddenly, the line lurched upwards. Instead of ledge going up, Scrat was going up- with the acorn!

Everybody was silent on the ledge. They were shocked, stunned. This ship was responsible for dragging them here. Scrat was continuing to go higher and higher until suddenly, he was grabbed by a frightening creature.

'Welcome aboard, mate.'


	2. Brink of Death

Forgotten Past- Chapter 2

Scrat was screaming. It was deafening, piercing and irritating. Scrat looked down at the herd, sitting on the iceberg silently, hoping not to be discovered by these trappers. Scrat pointed down at them and made an obvious signal for them to swim away.

The main pirate, Gutt was his name, looked down where Scrat was frantically pointing to. His appearance scared them a lot.

'You brought us friends,' sneered the captain.

Gutt and his fellow mates laughed. Gutt pulled the iceberg up with help of a long rope.

'Keep the boys,' ordered Gutt and chucked Scrat on board. 'Get the girls off.'

Two large and odd looking creatures obeyed. The forced Ellie off first and threw Peaches with her. Manny was alarmed and immediately outstretched his trunk to help Ellie back on. Gutt wasn't so amused with the idea.

'Trunk off, Mister,' Gutt warned. He pulled out a sharp sword. 'Or no trunk.'

Manny was shocked and reluctantly let his trunk back. The ugly captain, Gutt, ordered Ellie to go overboard with Peaches. Ellie was shocked- how could she swim so far- with a baby?

'Don't do that!' Manny said sharply. 'It's too far to swim! She'll drown!'

The crew members each tackled Diego, Sid and Manny. They were strong- especially the specific white female- and they tied them up with rope against a large wooden pillar. Diego snarled furiously at the white sabre-toothed tiger.

Gutt stood in silence for a moment and started to walk towards Manny.

'With the utmost respect for females,' he drawled sarcastically. 'I will send your precious family on a yacht to go home. End of discussion.'

The crew members snickered at Gutt and a tiny yacht was sent down into the water where Ellie and Peaches would frantically hurry in the water.

Manny was worried- to be exact, Manny was majorly freaking out. And, to make matters worse, the rope was tied very tight and it was hard to breathe.

'What are we going to do?' Sid hissed to the sabre-toothed tiger who was still snarling at the feline.

'I don't know, Sid, maybe we'll just make up and live happily ever after, eh?' Diego replied sarcastically.

Eddie and Crash were hiding before, hidden in the ship. They burst out with fake costumes.

'Don't you dare do that to our sister! Crash and I are strong, ferocious creatures! We're going to go with Ellie, even though we're boys!' Eddie announced.

Gutt sneered cruelly. He snatched Eddie and Crash by their necks. 'Already been arranged.' With that, he threw the possums on board with Ellie and Peaches. The crew looked satisfied with the two possums being gone now.

Gutt glanced at Scrat who was dying in Gutt's grasp. 'Oh, dear little acorn-lover, why don't we do something for you?'

In a flash, there was music and mermaid Scrat was dancing to the music awkwardly while the crew members threw their swords at him for amusement. Diego was scrambling furiously at the rope to escape and Gutt was drinking beer enjoyably.

Somebody threw a long sword at Scrat and it went flying through the air. Life was in slow motion then and Sid held his breath. If the sword missed, it would be millimetres close to Scrat's head. If not, it would be instant death.

Diego stared in shock and looked around for something. His eyes quickly glanced past the white feline and he felt a familiar pang inside him. That was strange. He thought he never saw her before. In fact, he thought he never saw anybody that was pirates aboard.

Suddenly, the music stopped. Manny had been silent for a long time and Sid was actually entertained by the sword attacking with Scrat. Diego however was silent like Manny, thinking.

The crew members looked around and immediately saluted Gutt as he approached them.

'We've captured some fine guests, have we not?' Gutt announced and the crew snickered evilly. 'Well, what will we use them for? New recruits? Absolutely not! Ideas?'

The members thought awhile and each had an idea. The large, fat seal-like thing snorted around.

'We could cook 'em!'

Everybody refrained in disgust. 'That would be foul,' Gutt snapped. 'Think smarter, dork! That sloth looks like he's infested to me!'

'Shira, yes?'

Diego glanced at the white feline. 'Shira that is her name. I'll fight her as soon as I escape this rope!'

'They could do the odd jobs,' she suggested, her voice sounding as shiny and sleek as silver. 'You know, like one does deck patrol, the other does rat investment and another does cleaning.'

There was a silence and Shira hopefully waited for praise.

'That…that…' Gutt began. 'That's a very good idea. Well done, Shira, as usual. Odd jobs it is!'

The crew members seemed excited about the idea too. Shira smiled proudly and looked at the trapped animals with distaste.

'Alright, time to assign your jobs,' the captain announced dryly. 'Alright, sloth- you're on rat duty. I knew you'd be thrilled. Mr. Moody Mammoth- you're on cleaning. Yes, yes, it's very honourable. And you- tiger- you'll be on deck patrol. Alright!'

'Deck patrol?' another crew member asked.

'Oh, yes,' Gutt said. 'You sabre-toothed kitty- you'd better not try to escape. If a single drop of blood falls, you're 'kitty overboard'. Got it, mate? Oh- and if you do decide to escape, have fun drowning.'

The mammals were reluctantly going to do their duties when Gutt stopped them. 'Before you go off, it'd be best to know your names, freaks. Sloth?'

'My name's Sid.'

'Mammoth?'

'That's Manny and that's Diego.'

'NOT YOU!' roared Gutt furiously.

Sid stepped backward anxiously.

'You.' Gutt repeated again, pointing to the Manny.

Manny shot a dark glare at the evil captain. 'Manfred.'

'Quit the attitude, Frederick. And you, kitty?'

'Diego. And if you, Gutt, continue to be pestering my friends, prepare for death.'

Gutt looked alarmed at Diego's threatening, but he returned calm immediately. He whipped out a sword and pushed it towards Diego's face.

'We'll see who dies first,' Gutt challenged, his voice dripping with blood. He pushed the sword higher. If it when any more higher, it would pierce Diego. The crew was silent- most of them were amused, but Shira was alarmed. One crew member laughed and Shira hit him- hard.

'It isn't funny,' Shira hissed.

The sword was slowly rising and Shira saw a line of blood fall down Diego's neck. Gutt released the sword and Diego shut his eyes tightly, then opened them back. Gutt was furious still and he raised his sword to kill him.

'NO!' a voice screamed.

Gutt stopped and Diego dropped his head in relief. Sid was about to faint. Gutt looked over behind him and saw Shira, standing firm and tall her long teeth stretched out, ready for attack.

'Don't kill him,' she ordered. The crew members looked at each other, disappointed. She heard one very faintly make a kissing noise. Her face fell and her ears flopped down in embarrassment. 'We-uh-we need someone-uh…to do deck patrol!' she covered up.

That wasn't true. Somewhere deep down, she knew there was more to this sabre-toothed tiger. Normally, she wouldn't trust her instincts deep down there, but in this case, her body forced her to.

Gutt sighed and stepped over to Shira. She wobbled a bit, unsteadily, hoping that a fatal punishment wasn't approaching. Gutt loomed over her wickedly.

'Alright, pussy, but next time, no going soft. Got it?' Gutt commanded in a deep, threatening voice.

Shira nodded.

Gutt's face was firm and evil. It reminded Shira sometimes of her father…but she didn't like thinking about him. She didn't like looking at the sabre-toothed tiger either, because it reminded her of home, somehow. Did he remind her of somebody else? Or was he part of her family too?

The boat was bouncing on the water quietly as everybody moved off. Gutt released the tight rope that held the three together. Manny stomped off, heavily, moody about the final decision. He looked over at the water and realised that they were very far in the sea.

'Why do I have to do rat patrol?' Sid muttered as he padded away on the boat. 'Out of all the things, I have to do rat patrol. Gee, I just…'

Manny watched as Sid grumpily muttered away to himself about his role on board. Manny was on cleaning duty, so that was obviously mopping the deck and polishing other things. Nobody told him directions on where to get materials and he wasn't just going to go up to a crew member and ask that easily.

Diego walked past Manny. He looked tired and worn out, even though they had spent most of their time being tied up against a wooden pillar with thick rope.

'You alright, Diego?' Manny asked.

'Yeah, I'm alright,' Diego replied. He paused for a second and then walked away. The crew members could be faintly heard from the other side of the ship, singing pirate shanties. Diego sat on the other side of the boat lying down. He was about to rest when…

'Hey,' a voice came. 'I'm Shira.'


	3. Meeting Shira

Forgotten Past- Chapter 3

Diego shot a glare at the feline who had separated herself from the other pirates that were singing shanties. She was standing tall and confidently, looking at Diego. She was definitely a sabre-toothed tiger but her sabres were shorter than Diego's and her fur was just like a snow tiger. It was soft and purely white with some black strips travelling across it.

Diego was definitely not in a hey-let's-have-a-great-chat-since-I-am-enemies-with-you-mood. He glared at Shira, stood up and bared his teeth. He had expected her to back away, to retreat and be afraid, but she stared on, her crystal blue eyes glittering with intelligence.

In fact, she couldn't care less that she stepped forward, stunning Diego even more.

'So,' Shira tried to begin. 'You're Diego, right?'

Diego decided to ignore the feline, because she was obviously trying to lure information out of him. But she wasn't, she was just curious and inquisitive of Diego. He didn't trust this female and he didn't want to talk to her either, so he tried to get her away.

'Why don't you go hang out with your other pirates?' Diego growled, his sabres shining in the bright sun.

'No, thanks,' Shira replied. 'You know, they're a bit annoying sometimes and it's different to hang out with another sabre. I haven't met one of you in ages because…' She stopped herself from talking, obviously a memory disturbed her. 'Never mind.'

'Well, it's good to have fans, but not when they're your enemy and look nothing like a sabre. Look at you! Are you trying to fool me? You're nothing but merely a snow leopard!' Diego snarled. 'You're 'sabres' are short and blunt, you have _stripes_, and you've got white fur!'

Words were stabbing Shira. In a situation like this, the animal threatening her with words would already be killed. But she didn't want to kill him for some reason and she hated this feeling so much. Diego stood, snarling. His last sentence was so painful, that there were tears welling in Shira's eyes.

'Don't go soft, Shira,' she reminded herself mentally. 'You're a sabre and you know it. You've been different from the start and nobody liked you because of that. You started off new when you ran away because you wanted to live new and start fresh. Don't let it come back to you.'

Shira refused to meet eyes with Diego and she turned away and left Diego silently. Accidentally, a tear dropped on the wooden planks and she left him, hoping he wouldn't notice.

Diego watched as she left. He didn't know what to feel. Victorious? Guilty? Diego sighed, and walked towards the feline's tear. Then he knew what he felt. Total outright shamefulness. He didn't realise he had been so mean, so cruel. He had joined a herd that were mixed with all sorts of different animals. They weren't sabres and yet he always talked to them- they were his friends. He wouldn't even speak to her!

Diego shamefully looked down and his shame weighed him down for majority of the day.

Manny came along and accidentally stepped on the single tear. Diego stared. Manny was confused, because he didn't even see the tear.

'What's wrong, Diego?' Manny asked and Sid appeared, tackling a rat that was clinging onto his neck.

'Oh, uh, nothing, really,' Diego stammered, quietly. 'Nothing much. Just got to…uh…I'm going to do the deck patrol…'

He hurried off, leaving Manny and Sid a little bit suspicious.

'I think he's annoyed that we're on water,' Sid suggested. 'He hates water.'

Manny agreed but was still suspicious. They went below deck and continued their work. Diego was on deck, lying down with his face in between his paws, staring at the wooden deck floor. He told himself that Manny and Sid would've killed him if they found out what he'd done to the female. He knew he that Shira was an enemy, but she was seemingly nice and she didn't ask for anything personal. All she did was introduce herself, whom most enemies would never do nicely and she even tried for a small conversation.

Diego was still thinking to himself, telling himself that he was an idiot all day. He was continuously telling himself to apologise, but Diego sort of didn't do that. He didn't like talking to his enemy. It was like chatting to a big fat juicy antelope that he was chasing.

But then again, he too was curious about Shira, since she reminded him so much of…something. He thought about many words but nothing clicked with Shira. He didn't know that she was part of his childhood, that she had in fact, saved his life.

Sunset appeared and Diego watched the bright sun set on the ocean. The sky was a mixture of pinks and oranges. It was very beautiful to see and Diego had never seen it like that before. Back on the land, life wasn't exactly beautiful as it seemed. Ice was ice and snow was snow. The sun was faint and white, almost as if it was covered in ice too.

Night suddenly caved in. That was beautiful too. The sky was moonlit and there were thousands of millions of stars gathered in bouquets glittering in the sky.

'Night, kitty,' Squint cackled and the crew members laughed and went below deck to rest for the night. Diego was still on deck patrol, for he had to work day and night. He hadn't seen Shira ever since he had the argument. Maybe she was mad at him. As long as she kept away from him, maybe the better it would be. But even Diego disagreed with himself.

Diego still rested and he watched the sky. Suddenly, he heard a creaking noise. He stood up and waited for his prey to appear. He quickly estimated that in two seconds he'd pounce and attack. It was his first night on patrol and already there were enemies to attack!

One...

TWO!

Diego leapt up and jumped on the white creature that had appeared. It tumbled on the deck, stunned by what had just happened. Diego was baring his teeth and had a clear view of the enemy. But it had astonished him. He'd just pounced on Shira.

Diego refrained and quickly got up, allowing Shira to get up. Diego was blushing, embarrassed at what he did. He hoped that the crimson on his face wouldn't glow in the night.

'Oh, right, sorry,' Diego quickly said. He went back to where he was laying and sat down, embarrassed.

Shira got up and shook herself back to normal. There was a very awkward pause between the two of them and Diego wanted to know what Shira was doing on the deck. He attempted to break the ice between the two.

'Uh, so,' Diego began. 'What are you doing up here? Aren't you meant to be down there?'

Shira looked up. 'I…I was going to come up here to…um…talk, again, only if you want to…'

Another awkward pause and Diego realised that she was anxious about him, since he had hurt her earlier.

'Uh,' Diego began. 'Sorry…about this afternoon…I, uh, didn't mean to hurt you…'

Shira gave a wan smile and her eyes seemed to sparkle in the night. He realised that if he saw her eyes sparkle, then his blush before was obvious. He sighed in relief quietly, and the shamefulness washed away. Shira was more confident and she approached Diego curiously.

'I don't know about you,' she began quietly. 'But I feel like I know you and I've met you before.'

Diego looked at Shira and she was sitting down, an appropriate distance from him. Her fur was white and soft and Diego came to realise that she was actually very attractive. He blushed again, and turned away, pretending to admire the stars.

'I feel like…you're part of my past…' Shira admitted. 'I hate thinking about my past. It was terrible. My father-'She stopped talking and looked at the ground.

'It's alright,' Diego said. 'You can keep going.'

He tried to keep his voice calm, but he wanted to know her past, so he could figure out his past. He didn't remember anything about his childhood. The only thing he did remember was a freezing cold pond. He didn't understand why.

'I wouldn't really like to talk about it…' Shira confessed quietly. 'I just-'

'Shira!' a sharp voice called. 'Secondary mast sail is your job in the morning!'

That was Gutt, calling from below deck. Shira replied a 'yes, captain' and looked and Diego. 'I have to go now,' she said, quietly. Diego wanted her to stay, but he said nothing. 'See you in the morning.'

She went below deck and realised that Diego did have a soft side. She knew it! She had been right. She knew that Diego wasn't just a plainly mean tiger. He was a nice tiger! She smiled to herself and quietly drifted to sleep.

Diego rested on board, breathing the warm air in. He never liked water, never did and never would, but he started to realise that it wasn't that bad…

Not bad at all.


	4. Recovering the Past

Forgotten Past- Chapter 4

Diego was on board in the morning. He wasn't on deck duty since all the pirates were on board. It was a chaos though, because the pirates were bombing torpedoes at other ships. The ships were cargo ships and they were stealing the cargo from them as they bombed them.

Manny, Sid, Diego were hiding below deck from all the noisy chaos. Manny was worried. He had been worried ever since they were trapped. He hoped Ellie, Peaches, Crash and Eddie were alright. He hoped nothing happened to them and they were happy on land, waiting for the three to arrive back.

But that made Manny worry even more. What if they didn't come back?

Diego was waiting, impatiently. He hated missing the adventure. It really made him annoyed. He was a tiger and he loved adventuring and seeing new things. Now he was missing out on an all time adventure. There were pirates, bombing other ships and attacking others.

Then, suddenly, the bombing stopped. A victorious cheer ran up from the pirates.

'Nice work, pirates,' Gutt announced simply. 'Now get back to work!'

A groan came from the pirates and they scuttled off to work. The three came back on board and listened to Gutt command them to do orders.

Night came again and the badger-like creature with the pirate symbol on his back saluted Diego a goodnight, and then walked down the steps. Diego waited awhile to see if Shira came, but she didn't. Disappointed, Diego fell asleep quietly on the deck.

Hours later, he was woken up. He blinked a couple times and saw Shira standing in front of him, nudging him to wake up. He was sleepy and tired, but happy to see Shira.

'Good morning,' she laughed quietly. 'Sorry to wake you up. It won't happen again, I promise.'

'No, that's alright,' Diego replied, reassuringly. 'It's perfectly fine.'

Shira smiled again and Diego gazed at her in awe. She seemed so fine to him, so perfect and beautiful. He really did like her.

'I woke you up…because I need to talk to you,' she explained. 'I had a dream, but I know that it's a flashback. You were in it…I know it was you. You were just a cub…' Shira hesitated to go on. 'But maybe that's just all!'

Diego could tell that she was holding something back. She kept looking at the scar that Diego had on his left hind leg. It had always been there, and it was scarred for life. He never knew how he got it.

'You're fibbing,' Diego said. 'Just tell me.'

Shira stared, and then finally let a big sigh out. 'Alright, you got me,' she said. 'I know who you are and I don't want to tell me because it'll really shock you.'

Diego waited and told her to tell him. 'I don't know who I am,' Diego went on. 'I don't know my parents. I was just another sabre in Soto's pack.'

Shira stopped and wobbled a bit. 'Soto…' she breathed. 'It's true, then…'

She stared firmly at Diego and started to tell Diego what she knew. 'My father was a leader of a pack. The pack was evil and they were all strong. Every day, he came back, telling us how he killed a villager. I hated hearing about it and I always went to bed early because I didn't like listening. My father didn't really care because he hated me. I was born with white fur, stripes and I was just different. He trained me early. Most sabres were trained at six weeks. I was trained at my first week! I was stronger and more capable of different things than to normal sabres then.

'Then, one day, my father came back but he was holding another sabre. This sabre was three weeks and he was brought up normally. In another three weeks, he would be trained to hunt and be a sabre. But he wasn't trained yet and he was shivering and shaking in fear. I told Dad to return him, but he told me that his parents were in a fatal accident. This made me furious because I knew that he killed his parents. I was so mad that I rejected my father for weeks. He didn't like the cub because he was weak and hungry. So he threw him around and was angry at him, yelling at him.

'Then, I couldn't stand it and I ran away. I was six weeks then, and the cub was eight weeks. I left and never came back.

'Then, one day, I saw the cub in a pond. It was a freezing cold pond, and it was surrounded in ice. The pack was up ahead and the cub was calling out for help. I didn't want him to drown, so I picked him up and helped him catch up. If I didn't do anything, he could've died.

'Then, I met the pirates and joined their crew and I've forgotten the matter since. Until now, that is.'

Diego stared at Shira, stunned. The freezing pond. It was his past. Her father killed Diego's parents and kidnapped him. Diego glanced back at his leg and stared at the scar. It flashbacked. He was forced to carry a large rock to the den when he was little but he dropped it on the ground. Then, the larger, stronger sabre-toothed tiger scarred him on his leg deeply.

'I'm sorry, Diego,' Shira said sadly. 'Then, my father's pack split up. Each of them becomes a leader of their own pack. You put in my father's…'

Soto.

Soto was Shira's father.

His leader, the leader that he looked up to, killed his parents and took away his childhood, stealing it and throwing it away. It explained everything. He was afraid of water because of the freezing pond.

'I am so sorry, Diego,' Shira said sadly. 'I tried, I bit my father and told him to be nicer but he would never listen.'

Diego was silent. He was looking away, staring at the floor in shock.

'Thank-you,' he said quietly. 'I finally know who I am.'

'I owe you,' Shira said. 'You made me feel heaps better. I can think straight and I can be who I'm meant to be.'

A cold, hostile breeze flew into the night. Shira looked around. 'It's going to be cold tonight,' Shira predicted. She grabbed a soft blanket that was tucked away inside and brought it to Diego. She opened it up and gave to Diego.

'I…' Diego began as Shira was about to leave. 'I want you to stay.'

Shira blushed and approached Diego. He made room for Shira in the blanket and she snuggled next to Diego. She was soft and warm and Diego felt happy. He nuzzled Shira gently on her neck and she licked his face. 'Goodnight,' she whispered.

'Goodnight,' Diego replied and let Shira rest her head under his neck.

They slept peacefully and Diego could sense a deep attachment to her.


End file.
